Feathering propeller



p 1936- R. DE TRYON-MONTALEMBERT 2,054,876

FEATHERING PROPELLER 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed June 27, 1954 7 Sept. 22,1936.

R. DE TRYON-MONTA'LEMBERT 2,054,875

FEATHERING PROPELLER Filed June 27, 1934 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 i UNITED fSTATES OFFICE.

' the toothed crowns of each -about100.

Fig. 3 illustrates-a Rene de Tryon-Montalembert, Villefranche sur Mer,'Alpes-Maritimes, France Application June 27 1934, Serial No. 732,675

In France July 18, 1933 2 Claims." (01. 170-453) The present inventionrelates torotary feathering propeller of. general application.

The propeller according to the invention comprises in. combinationaframe, two main driving shafts supported. in said. frame and forming anangle with each other, so as to project on either side of the frame,gears at'the adjacent endsof said driving shafts and meshing with eachother, a driving pulley mounted. upon. one of said main driving shafts,twosecondary shafts forming two inclined and symmetrical extensions ofeach driving shaft and integrally fixed thereto, a. freely rotatableblade mounted on each sec;-

ondary-shaft, a toothed crown secured at the base of the blades, and astationary pinion secured on either side of the frame. and meshing withpair of blades on either side of the frame. i r i,

In a modification, a reduction gear forms the connection. between thegear wheels of the blades and the stationary pinion.

In=the accompanying drawings,certain forms of embodiment-have been"diagrammatically illustrated, by way of' example. Fig. lis ,a plan.view. of a device comprising two pairs of feathering wings or bladescapable .of: rotating in balance; p q 1 Fig. 2 is a planv view of. adevice in which two pairs. of rotary feathering blades are rotating andin which. the pivotment axes form an anglev of about 50 with the drivingshaft. This device. is provided with a differential. gear, andsynchronism ofmovements in. the driving shafts issecuredby two identicalgears arranged at an angle of modified form of embodiment of the drivingdevice whichis arranged with a reducing-system for the pivotalmovementof the bladeswhich are, provided with. toothed crownsarrangedattheirbottom end, said crowns ;.being .driven from the side directed tothesupportingframe. H H 7 Fig.4 illustrates another, modification of such,device, inwhich the toothed crownsintegralwith 45.

thev blades. are driven atftheupper'side with respect tofjthe supportingframe.

The invention. may be devised as follows: With reference to Fig. l, themain driving shaft ,A is providedat its enduwith an. auxiliary shaft Barranged" at an. angle of about 90, 7 said auxiliary shaft. 2constituting support and pivotment axis for. thev double.faced paddlesC,the

bottom end ,of whichisprovided with a toothed ,driving crown D. Thepaddle O and the crown D freely rotate'about the auxiliary shaft B Theauxiliary shaft B has a circular movement around the axis of the'drivingshaft, whereas the crown D meshes with a bevel pinion E, unmovably fixedto the frame J, so that said paddle Cis caused to rotate about theauxiliary shaft '13.

The toothed crown has a number of teeth exactlytwice that of the pinionE and will: thus rotate over half a rotation only duringthe time thatthe main driving shaftwillimake a complete rotation. Consequently,during half a rotation of the main driving shaft A, the paddle-C turningabout the shaft'B, will only make one quarter of a revolution, so as tobe. progressively inclined and move afterwards in a vertical plane; inthis way, the paddle reaches its-top-position.

During the second half rotation of the main driving shaft A, the paddlewill first act obliquely and afterwards parallel to the air layerflapped, by the complete width of its surface, during, a fraction ofrevolution, and each face of the paddle will thus'successively act-inthe same manner and produce a feathering motion.

. In order to perform practically the mechanical flying, it' is requiredthat the movementof the paddle, itsworking and its weight, as also the 7action of the air produced at the side ofzthe chassis or fuselage bebalanced. It would be possible for this to use single paddlesv balancedbyweightp r However, practica1ly,-it will be preferable to arrange twopaddles having identical double faces and pivoting around two equallyand symmetrically arranged shafts, fixed at the end of the ,double wingsuponthe airwill bebalanced by the action of the other pain In this Way,for each rotation of the -main driving shaft, the simultaneous loweringand starting of the two wings will also expel the air downwards, both oneither side of the fuselage,- whereas-the volume of air comprisedbetweenthe descending movements of the two other wings continuing theirrotation and before the retractive movement of the upward stroke, willbe violently pushedtowardsthe rear and underneath the apparatus, so asto produce a violent reaction, similar to that produced by thesimultaneous lowering of the two wings of a bird.

The apparatus illustrated in Figs. 1 and 2 is provided with two doublesymmetrically arranged wings arranged on either side of the fuselage.The paddles have been-illustrated here, in both figures, at the momentwhen the two auxiliary shafts are in the horizontal position, i. e. atthe moment when both wings at the front side flap the air over theirwhole surface (maximum action), whereas the two rear wings, oppositely,are ascending in the vertical plane.

The synchronism of working of the double wings is obtained, according toFig.1, by the use of two identical toothed gears G, G, meshing with acommon pinion H, mounted upon the same shaft as the pinion I, to whichmovement is transmitted from any driving motor.

The angles between the main shafts and the auxiliary shafts will be moreor less open, accordingto the required use of the apparatus. 7 It mayindeed easily be seen that, as-the lifting effect ought to be directedin progressing line, the more the angles formed by the auxiliary shaftsand the'driving shaft will approach 45, themore the feathering movementwill be given laterally.

In this case, the device illustrated in Fig. 1 can no longer be used, asthe toothed crowns at the bottom end of the wings can no longer meshwith the-pinion having half" the dimensions of the crowns;

Three different'reducing devices are illustrated in Figs. 2 to 4.

The device illustrated in Fig. 2 provides for the interposition of adifferential gear between the adjustable fixed pinion and the geartransmitting the movement to the toothed crowns at the bottom end of thepaddles, so that the rotation of the latter will always be delayed forthe half with respect to the rotation of the main driving shaft.

This differential gear is formed as follows:

Let us consider the spur-wheel e in which the main driving shaft 0.freelyrotates. This spurwheel meshes with another spur-wheel j ofconvenient diameter to connect the wheel e with the toothed crown gearZwhich freely rotates upon the driving shaft a and meshes with thetoothed wheels d, d, at the bottom ends of the paddles c, c. The gears11, d and I have the same diameter and have the same number of teeth, i.e.-twice as much as the pinions a; a second pinion 7" diametricallyopposed rotates and meshes with the crown g'ear'Z so as to secure abetter balance. Both spur- Wheels e are freely mounted upon a shaftfixed at right angles upon the frame 70, which supports also the twoauxiliary shafts b, b, and the main driving shafts a. During therotation of the shafts a the pinions i, rotate about their axes, whiledeveloping on the spur-wheels e and will transmit their rotary movement,reduced for one half by means of the gears, to the gears Z and d,

V which will rotateasdes'cribed. Such arrangement allows to provideangles of 90 to 45 and more, between the main driving shaft and theauxiliary shafts supporting the paddles.

The synchronism of movement of the two pairs of wings arrangedsymmetrically is secured by two main driving shaftsmeshing with eachother by bevel pinions 0-, o of equal diameters. One of the shafts a isprovided with a spur-wheel i, to which driving power is transmitted fromany motor arranged underneath.

A carter n may be provided for protecting the gearing.

The reducing system for the rotation of the wings illustrated in Figs. 3and 4 is characterized by a series of spur-wheels, arranged in the sameplane as the fixed pinion and supported by a single member integral withthe auxiliary shafts b, b supporting the Wings 0, c.

The device may be used in two applications. The bottom crowns of thepaddles are driven at the underside with respect to the frame (Fig. 3)

and require five transmission pinions, or they will be driven at theupper side and in this case only three pinions will be required, thepinions at the ends being extended by bevel pinions having a normal orinverted shape and meshing with the toothed crowns of the paddles (Figs.3 and 4).

The device illustrated in Fig. 3 is constructed as follows:

.The main driving shaft a freely rotates while passing through the fixedpinion e mountedin the frame. This shaft is provided with a member m,which supports the two auxiliary rotation shafts for the paddles b, b;Upon this member m are freely mounted the pinions J, J and g, 9, but theteeth of the pinions g" at the ends are shaped so as to constitute bevelpinions for meshing in the required angle with the toothed crown'sd, dof the paddles c c. I j

The gears f and g are only intended'for trans- .mitting power and mayhave a reduced diameter,

in order to reduce the length of their supporting member and the weight,but the number of teeth of the toothed crowns d, (1 will always be twiceas much as that of the pinion e; hereby the pivotal movement of thepaddles will always be delayed for one half with respect to the rotationof the main driving shaft, for which power isfor instance imparted tothe pulley i.

The device illustrated in Fig. 4, in which the toothed crowns d. d atthe bottom ends of the paddles are driven downside with respect to theframe may be constructedin the following manner:

A tubular driving shaft (1 is provided with a member m, fromwhichproject the pivotment shafts b, b for the paddles. Upon thismemberare freely mounted the pinions f, f, the ends of which are shaped asinverted bevel pinions g, g,

meshing with the toothed crowns d, d and developing about the fixedpinion e mounted at the end of a shaft n, supported in intermediarybearings within the main tubular shafta coaxial therewith.

The pinions f and g have the same number of teeth as the spur-wheele,thus half asmuch as the toothed crowns d.

For performing the mechanical flying, balancing when in movement anddirecting the ap-- paratus laterally or in depth will be obtained bymodifying, by means of the lever p or a direct or speed reducinghandwheel, over the convenient number of degrees the position of eachfixed pinion e arranged close to the frame, in which" freely rotates thedriving shaft and upon which" run the toothed crowns at the bottom endof the paddles or the differential pinions driving same 7 (Figs. 1, 2and 3).

In the device illustratedin Fig. 4, the fixed pinion being mounted atthe end of a shaft passing through the tubular driving shaft is actuatedby a lever p mounted at the end of said shaft (1., and which allows alsoto modify to some degrees the position of thefixed pinion about itscenter.

The modifying of the angles of the secondary shafts with respect to themain shafts causes obviously proportional angular modifications of themain shafts with each other, as also between these latter shafts and theframe. It is necessary that the secondary shafts while rotating passsubstantially parallel to the rear side walls of the frame or fuselage,that the ascending position of the paddles remains directed in thedirection of progression, that the edges of the paddles do not hurt thefuselage when rotating, and that the paddles do not interfere with eachother in action.

I claim;

1. A propeller of general application comprising in combination a frame,two main driving shafts supported in said frame and forming an anglewith each other so as to project on either side of the frame, gears atthe adjacent ends of said driving shafts and meshing with each other, adriving pulley mounted upon one of said main driving shafts, twosecondary shafts forming two inclined and symmetrical extensions of eachdriving shaft and integrally fixed thereto, a freely r0- tatable blademounted on each secondary shaft, a toothed crown secured at the base ofthe blades, and astationary pinion secured on either side of the frameand meshing with the toothed crowns of each pair of blades on eitherside of the frame.

2. A propeller of general application comprising in combination a frame,two main driving shafts supported in said frame and forming an anglewith each other so as to project on either side of the frame, gears atthe adjacent ends of said driving shafts and meshing with each other, adriving pulley mounted upon one of said main driving shafts, twosecondary shafts forming two inclined and symmetrical extensions of eachdriving shaft and integrally fixed thereto, a freely rotatable blademounted on each secondary shaft, a toothed crown secured at the base ofthe blades,

- a stationary pinion secured on either side of the frame, and areduction gear carried by the secondary shafts and forming theconnection between the toothed crowns of each pair of blades and thestationary pinion on either side of the frame.

RENE 1m TRYON-MONTALEMBERT.

